Thursday, September 13, 2012

"Barcelona Warns Madrid: Pay Up, or Catalonia Leaves Spain"

From TIME:

Hundreds of thousands march for Catalan independence as economic pressure boosts secessionist sentiment

Sept. 11 always
brings Barcelonans into the streets to dance the sardana, sing for their
enemies’ blood in the anthem “Els Segadors” and chant political slogans
in celebration of their national holiday, the Diada de Catalunya. But
this year, a new intensity colored the Catalans’ nationalist fervor. The
independence movement’s flag bearing a white star against a blue
triangle outnumbered the region’s official yellow-and-red-striped
standard. A pro-independence march, which in the past has never drawn
more than 50,000 people, pulled in a crowd estimated by city police at
1.5 million. And every newspaper in the city carried the results of a
poll released this week that reveals a once unimaginable transformation:
half the population of Catalonia supports secession from Spain.

“We have no other option since our will has been totally ignored”
says Soledat Balaguer, a member of the secretariat of the Catalan
National Assembly, organizers of the demonstration that shut down the
city center. “Catalonia needs to be its own state.”...MORE